


Cipher Manor

by FeliciaBelle



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, M/M, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:29:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21650797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaBelle/pseuds/FeliciaBelle
Summary: A mystery surrounding the old Cipher manor, it's up to the paranormal investigators The Pines Family to solve the tragic past of Cipher Manor.
Relationships: Bill Cipher/OC
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Beautiful. It was the only word to describe the boy before him; beautiful pale skin that had been blessed by the moon, silky black hair that rivaled the raven’s feathers, and those sweet silver eyes that were the stars themselves. He was just so perfect in every way, and now he was here with him. Here forever.

William smiled and closed the door on the sleeping boy and locked it. No one was taking his boy from the stars from him, not now. Not ever. He was going to stay right here in Cipher Manor until the end of time.

*****   
_June/xx/1894_

_“Today I finally made my arrival in Gravity Falls! I already miss my friends and family back home, but I always swore that after my eighteenth birthday I would spread my wings and see more of this glorious world! I have arranged boarding with the Northwest family under whom I shall apprentice in exchange for menial household chores. I’m not much of an asset in the kitchen! With any luck my modicum of culinary proficiency shall suffice._

_The diminutive community is not exactly teaming with activity, but I’m anxious to attend the annual autumn dance this Friday evening.”_

_“The Summerween formal was absolutely what my homesick heart required! Any time is an occasion to dance, as my father is one to proclaim. I felt at home for the first time since my arrival in Gravity Falls._

_This evening’s revelry also brought an encounter with a dashing young man by the name of William Cipher. An exceptionally handsome fellow, this one. I do believe he requested my hand for the better half of the gala! When not dancing about like two of my coworkers, we were engrossed in conversations, both enthralling and mundane._

_I must have made quite an impression for his eyes did not long take leave of mine._

_“Feb 5th 1895_   
_For many months now, my days have been spent taking stocks with my coworkers, while my evenings belong to my wonderful William. He often steals me away from my chores but the Northwests does not seem to mind._

_March 14th 1895_   
_After a delightful carriage ride this evening, William amazed me by dropping to one knee and producing the most beautiful engagement ring! This is the moment in life for which every young woman (or man in my case) waits: a wealthy, handsome man asking for their hand in marriage._

_As William knelt before me, his request hanging in the air, I felt my breath catch…”_

Dipper closed the book and looked to his uncle who was driving the car through Gravity Falls. Rumors surrounding a particular manor had circulated for decades and mayor Tyler had enlisted the Pines family into solving the mystery behind the ghostly apparitions in and around the place. A lot of the locals had said that the manor had belonged to a rather eccentric man and his young lover, they weren’t married or anything as the year they were in wouldn’t allow it so they kept everything behind closed doors and just appeared as friends. The young lover, or Tori as the name on the journal read, eventually fell ill and died within the lovely home and that the head of the house died of grief soon after. Of course, there was always a hidden story in the narrative. The entry mentioned the Northwest family which was where they were going to start their investigation before going to Cipher Manor, the family should have some insight about their ancestors and the owner of the diary, even if it was just an old relative’s notebook. Of course, according to the lumberjack family, the Northwest family were pretty…entitled and stuck up, so getting them to talk would be a challenge. That’s what the Pines family worked best at, and already Stanford had a plan in getting the family to talk.

“Hey, Great Uncle Ford?” Dipper called out. “What do you think happened to this guy?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out, Dipper. Now, look alive, we’re here.”

The Northwest Mansion was what one would expect from a high society family; unnecessarily huge and grand, grey exterior and had fountains and peacocks for whatever reason. The sight alone made the uncle and nephew duo curl their noses up in annoyance, silently thanking god that they wouldn’t be staying here longer than needed to. They didn’t even have to knock, there was a girl around Dipper’s age sitting on a wooden bench with a folder in hand. This sight would be normal if she wasn’t looking over her shoulder like someone was watching, or if she was making sure she wasn’t followed.

Stanford was the first to approach her. “Hello Miss, is Preston here?”

“Yeah.” She stood up. “He’s inside, probably fabricating evidence. I’m his daughter, Pacifica.”

“Why would he be fabricating evidence?”

Pacifica scoffed. “They know you’re here about the mystery surrounding Cipher Manor, and if you’re here…you probably found a link. Am I right?” 

“Well…yes, we were given a journal that belonged to the manor’s occupant and it mentioned your family.”

“So then listen to me; my father will lie to you about this.” She shoved the folder into his hands. “What happened to that boy is because my great whatever grandfather sold him off to Cipher. My father will say otherwise, don’t believe a word he says or else you’ll never solve this mystery and give that poor boy the rest he deserves.”

“You say we can’t trust your father, but we can trust you?”

“Believe me or not, I’m not the one on the case.” She turned and left. “You should get going, my father isn’t really one for patience and he doesn’t really like having commoners in the manor for too long.”

Stanford looked at his nephew and nodded before going to the front door with him, after a few knocks they were let in by the butler and led into the foyer where Preston was, decked out in a suit and having a trophy wife that screamed vanity and plastic surgery. After a brief introduction, they were brought to an old portrait of the family with their apprentice. The young apprentice had light grey eyes, shoulder length black hair, fair skin, and a gentle smile. He was the definition of a healthy young man with a bright future ahead of him, which compared to the story the locals told about how he fell ill and died in Cipher Manor, didn’t really add up.

“He was a prime example of a hard worker.” Preston started out. “Our family had evolved in business over the years, he came in as we were in the midst of a cannery business. It was a shame we lost him.”

Dipper looked at the portrait then back at the head of the family. “What exactly happened?”

“The Summerween Festival.” Preston said simply. “He met William Cipher there and the two became close, so he just packed up his belongings and moved in with him. William proposed to him some time, and of course if that’s what made Mr. Shai happy, we let him leave and go start his new life.”

“Pretty certain the time age he was in wouldn’t allow a marriage like that to go through.” Dipper raised an eyebrow.

“Doesn’t really matter if you let money do the talking, you’d be surprised how simple it is to buy someone’s silence.” There was a hint of a dangerous tone in the man’s voice. “Now then, was there more you wanted to know about Mr. Shai?”

Stanford shook his head and held his nephew by the shoulder. “I think you told us enough, Mr. Northwest, thank you for your time.”

“Of course! We are happy to help in any way we can, even if it’s for a silly ghost hunt.”

The two Pines thanked him again and left the mansion. They hadn’t even pulled out of the parking lot to know that Pacifica was partially right; they were old money and had a reputation the moment that word of Cipher’s proposal to their apprentice got out they would have been more than happy to kick the boy out into the rain out of fear that their reputation would be ruined. The folder that Pacifica had given them was groundbreaking; there was an old contract of Tori’s arrangement at the Northwest Mansion, it had at the bottom a transfer agreement between them and William Cipher.

 _“My grandfather sold him off to Cipher.”_ Pacifica’s words were burning in their thoughts. Mouths now dried at the harsh reality, what exactly was Tori told that night? Was the proposal story even remotely true? 

They had only one place left for tonight; the motel the family was staying in. It was late and they would have a better chance of searching the manor in the morning when they’ve had a decent amount of sleep and a full stomach of breakfast. Once they were in their room, they were greeted to the sight of two familiar faces; Mabel – Dipper’s twin sister, and Stanley – Stanford’s twin brother. They dug around the history of Gravity Falls to see if there was anything they could use in the investigation, and the motel room was their little headquarters for the time being while they were in town. The Pines Investigation Team was a small business, but it made good money. They would mostly travel and solve whatever mystery the town might be having, they mostly lived in motels and the car, but they were perfectly fine with that. The letters to friends and families were always a fun read.

“How did your talk with Preston go?” Mabel asked.

“Lied to our face right off the bat, the typical rich guy response.” Dipper kicked his shoes off. “How are things here?”

“We had hell trying to find any old records of this William guy.” Stanley sighed. “He came to Gravity Falls in his twenties, anything before that he’s a damn ghost. It’s like he never existed! Fortunately, I have friends in dark places, they’re going to call us if they find anything.”

“Now would these friends be the ones you went to prison with?” Ford asked as he hung his coat up.

“Can it, sixer!”

“Boys, break it up.” Mabel stretched. “So, the Northwest lead was a dead end.”

“Not quite.” Dipper dropped the contract on the table. “Preston’s daughter gave this to us, said her grandfather sold Tori off to Cipher.” 

“Ha! Now we’re talking, so here’s the story!” Stan stood up. “Tori showed up and lived with the Northwest family as an apprentice to a business trade, he found something he wasn’t supposed to – maybe the business was going south to bankruptcy – and to quiet him, the family handed him off to William Cipher who murdered him to keep him quiet!” he had a huge grin on his face. “Case Closed! Let’s bring this to the cops!”

“Stanley do you hear yourself most of the time? What you just said was a theory and nothing more.” Ford shook his head. “Tomorrow, we’ll go to Cipher Manor and start our search, hopefully something will turn up there.”

“And what are we suppose to do until then?” 

“We sleep, like normal people.” Stanford went to the empty bed and laid down.

Mabel cheered and pounced Dipper onto the other bed. “Finally! I was growing tired of looking at old newspapers and boring junk!”

Stanley shook his head with a smile. He grabbed the contract and put it in their safe for the time being, this was a valuable piece of evidence they didn’t want anyone to get at and after that time with the snake monster or whatever that thing was, they weren’t going to risk a thing. After it was locked up and hidden away, he joined the family. Hopefully his ‘friends’ will have something in the morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right forgot to mention that this was a christams gift for my friend Deity-of-calamity. Merry Christmas hun! I hope I did enough for you (I'll continue this, I promise :D)

“Why do you cry, my love? You’re at home where you belong. Haven’t I been a loving person to you? Haven’t I cared for you when you were sick? I built this home for us out of my love for you, we said our love would always be eternal and that we’ll always be together! So why, why do you cry?”

“I see now. Even being with me can be lonely, but that’s okay! We’re going to have guests over, perhaps I can talk them into renting a room here! Please smile, you’ll have some friends to play cards with every once in a while. Just give me some time to get arrangements set up, alright?”

William hated to see his star sad, those tears that ran down his lover’s face was a painful sight, but he will rectify this! He’ll make his love happy again, he’ll have him smiling like before.

*

Cipher Manor was not at all what they were expecting. Standing before them was a Victorian style mansion; nature had reclaimed the iron gate, weather damage was mostly done to the exterior walls and roof, yet aside from those small damages, the rest of the manor seemed to be in perfect condition. A little remodeling here and there and people could still live there, if it wasn’t haunted to hell and back. Getting through the gate was the easy part (just had to knock them off the rusty hinges), now they had the fun chore of getting past a rather puzzling lock, it was a wonder if William was just paranoid that he made elaborate locks to keep out potential home invaders. Fortunately, when you have two geniuses in the family, locks like this were easy; just put the tokens in their respective slot (i.e. a bat with the moon, and a flower with the sun) flick the switches and voila! Door was opened! The four Pines walked in and flicked on their flashlights to start looking around, like the outside, the inside was well kept. Hardly a speck of dust was anywhere to be found, for a haunted mansion, this place was being tended to with care.

_“Help me”_

Dipper froze in place and looked to the banister. For a brief moment, he was face to face with a boy his age. The person was dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt and black pants, sickly pale, and those silver eyes showing pain in them. They stared at each other for a bit, not breaking contact for a while.

“Dipper?”

He jumped and turned to his family, his sister looking concerned at him. “He’s here.” he pointed to the banister where the boy was. When the rest of the family looked over, they were just greeted to an empty landing before them. What? Where did he go? 

“I swear he was there a few seconds ago!” Dipper cried.

“Whoa, easy slick.” Stanley laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t get too excited, now take a deep breath and calmly tell us who you saw.”

Dipper nodded and did so, taking a breath of air before answering. “I saw the owner of the diary, Tori Shai.”

As soon as he had said that, the door behind them slammed shut and the entire entrance hall was lit up by candlelight. The family was startled at first but instinctively grabbed at their supplies; a rock salt gun for the uncles, rosary and holy water for Dipper, and a silver hand mirror for Mabel. They learned the hard way on their very first case, that if you just dive in blindly…you’re going to have a bad time. So, it was better to have some form of weapon or defense when dealing with haunted places.

“Easy there, you’re far too young to have a heart attack!” A man came out holding a candelabra, smiling at the family. “My apologies for the scare, I’ve been trying out new ways to entertain guests that come this way. Seems that this was a bit too much.”

“Who the hell are you?” Stanley demanded.

The man gave a small bow. “My name is Bill, and I was hired to restore and try to make this place look livable.”

“What do you mean by that?” Mabel asked.

“Oh, you know, the moment you four clear up this town’s ghost problem is the moment they turn this place into a resort or something. So, I’ve been coming here and working on the place.”

“What do you know about the ghost that lives here?” Dipper asked. “Tori-”

“Shush!” Bill hissed. “Sorry, no-one in town dares say his name so casually.” His grin returned. “But I do have something that might be interesting for you to see. Come with me.”

Bill had ushered the family to follow him down a hall, Dipper looked back to the landing where the ghost was for a minute. Like before, the boy was there, this time with a fearful expression. He just turned and hurried off to catch up to the family, just in time to hear Bill give some story about the manor’s history. Back when Cipher Manor was in its glory, William and Tori were a happy couple, they would host get togethers for close friends almost every night. Dinner parties were especially popular as they would invite most of the town to join them (mostly to spit in the Northwest family’s face). It was a tragedy that William had lost his young lover so soon, but their love was strong and even death couldn’t keep them apart.

“And thus, brings us here, the gallery room.” Bill welcomed them in. “Don’t worry, this room is one hundred percent safe.” 

That…wasn’t really reassuring to them. Still, they walked into the room and looked around. Four paintings of the young man in different scenarios; one of him sitting in a boat with a parasol, another was sitting beside William at a picnic, picking flowers in the garden, and one of him just playing in the water. They were pretty normal in nature to an untrained eye, but the Pines knew better, there was no doubt something sinister about those paintings. They continued to listen to Bill going from history to…talking about the beauty of the manor. How ‘beauty once lived in these halls, and beauty can still be found today’ and near borderline creep when talking about him. As Bill continued to talk, the Pines’ suspicion was correct about the paintings; they were stretching and each inch showed more and more of the painting into something grotesque. What was once a peaceful picnic was now showing a rattlesnake by Tori’s arm ready to strike, Tori sitting in a row boat now was about to go down the falls, the garden had some monster lurking in the roses and was grabbing a sharp spade, and the playful water had a lake monster ready to drag him in. 

“Is this another one of your entertaining pieces?” Mabel challenged.

“Is what is?” Bill looked at the paintings. “The original paintings? No?”

“They’re being distorted into something horrible!” Dipper yelled.

“Relax, Pinetree, there’s nothing going on with the paintings.” Bill was calm.

 _Liar!_ The distortedness stopped and stayed on the grotesque images and the temperature in the room dropped rapidly. Candle lights flickered violently before going out, leaving the family alone in the dark for an undetermined amount of time before they relit themselves and the sight of Bill was no more. “He probably left to find more candles” Mabel suggested and it was the agreed excuse. They’re already handling one ghost; they didn’t need to tack on another – and probably more dangerous – one. The paintings were returned to normal of Tori enjoying himself, no creepy monsters, no impending death, nothing. “There was definitely something wrong with those pictures earlier!” another agreed statement among the family. How could Bill not have noticed that those pictures were turning into a horror show? He definitely knew something.

Dipper sighed and sat down, he ran his hand through his hair and tried to settle himself. So, what did they learn today? Bill was a crazy bastard that was hired as a groundskeeper, Tori was definitely still inside this house, and William was a paranoid freak who loves elaborate locks. Not really much to go on, but at least it was at least something. Something is better than nothing he suppose. Setting his hand back down on the floor, he felt paper beside him, not wanting to leave any stone unturned he picked up the single page and looked it over. His brown eyes widen at the contents of it.

“Hey guys! I found something!” 

He stood up and handed the page to them. It was another journal page from Tori’s journal! Actually, even better, there were two pages (Just a little bit stuck together is all)

_March/16/1895_   
_I have avoided William these past days while I give his proposal its due measure of contemplation. I’ve awaited this experience as long as I can remember and I find myself wondering how different my life might become._

_March/17/1895_   
_After shedding many a tear, I made up my mind to decline William’s proposal. It’s so difficult to be certain that I’ve made the correct decision, yet I feel my adult life is just now beginning to unfold!_

_March/18/1895_   
_The delay of my reply, coupled with my melancholy demeanor must surely have wounded William this day. I have denied that which he has so graciously offered._

Stanford just quietly lead the family back to the car. “Let’s just go over notes at the diner and figure out our next move. I’d rather not linger about while that lunatic groundskeeper is still in the building.


End file.
